Infusion pumps are used to administer drugs and other medicaments to patients, typically in a clinical setting. An infusion pump provides a controlled amount of the medicament over time to the patient. The amount is administered pursuant to parameters entered by a clinician into the pump using a pump user interface.
Some infusion pumps can be monitored or controlled remotely over a network. This introduces the potential of a security threat, since a cyber attacker could take remote control of the system and change the amount of medicament administered to a patient.
Infusion pumps typically have less processing power than computer servers. Complex or processor-intensive encryption algorithms may be impracticable for some infusion pumps.